The present invention generally relates to secure transmission protocols and more particularly to methods and apparatus capable of securing digital video broadcast data over internet protocol (IP) networks.
Digital data can be transmitted from one node to another over the available high bandwidth Internet Protocol (IP) network, including complex digital transmissions such as voice over IP (VoIP) or video over IP, for example, Internet Protocol Television (IP-TV). The major advantage of integrating IP networks and complex digital data technologies in a common framework is that both traditional Internet data and video and audio data are accessible in a single box. Accordingly, transmission of digital video and audio signals through the IP network will provide several advantages, such as better quality of service (QoS), lower consumer costs through the integration of multiple services with one provider, low-power consumption, and better internet access controls for parents. Also, more entertainment and educational applications, such as commercial TV, video on demand, time-shifted TV, video phones, game portals, personal digital library, and the like, can be more readily supported by IP-TV than with traditional television broadcasting. Several issues must be addressed for IP-TV to become commonly used as the primary transmission service for consumer television. These challenges include scalability, high-quality transmissions, support of a broad service portfolio, cost-effective service deployment, security, and copyright protection.